Ex-Alabama basketball player says Nate Oats was ‘not capping’ about first practice chaos

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Coach Nate Oats wasn’t kidding when he recalled Alabama basketball players having it rough when he got to Tuscaloosa.

Former Crimson Tide player Raymond Hawkins shared a photo of himself from the 2019 season, laid out and shut-eyed on a table in Alabama’s sports medicine department while covered in blankets with an IV line stuck in his arm.

Hawkins said Oats was “not capping” to the Crimson Tide Sports Network during his Monday appearance on “Hey Coach.”

“My first practice here, you go back to it, it was two weeks after they finished the season with the previous staff,” Oats told host Chris Stewart.

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Although Hawkins played just five games that season, he will go down in history as the first commit of the Nate Oats era.

The 6-foot-9 big man had taken a visit to Buffalo and intended to play for Oats there prior to the former Bulls coach getting the call to replace Avery Johnson at UA.

Nate Oats said players were throwing up, falling out at first Alabama basketball practice

“We practiced, and I think we had half the team throwing up on a light practice compared to what we did at Buffalo,” Oats said. “They were cramping and the whole deal.”

From high school coaches to NBA scouts, a number of people come through to catch Alabama basketball practices. All of them see the flurries of team managers and assistants who drop to the floor time and time again to wipe up puddles made from sweat-drenched action.

“We practice a lot harder than most colleges do,” Oats said.

Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Ex-Alabama basketball player: Nate Oats didn’t lie about first practice chaos

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ex-alabama-basketball-player-says-001304483.html

Author : The Tuscaloosa News

Publish date : 2025-01-08 00:13:00

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